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Monday, November 26, 2012

Mystery Monday: You're right; I'm wrong

Mystery Monday is a
daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks us to share mystery ancestors or
mystery records – anything in our family history research which is currently
unsolved. With any luck fellow genealogy
bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help
solve the mystery.

In a recent Sepia Saturday post, I made light of my
great-aunt Velma’s use of the term “scabs” thinking she was simply looking down
her nose at some unsavory neighbors.
Several readers – no, make that MANY readers – called me on it, noting
that the term “scabs” is used to denote workers who refuse to join a labor union
or those who cross the picket line to take a striking worker’s job.

OK OK, you’re right.
As it turns out there was a nationwide railroad strike among the shopmen
in 1922 (same year as Velma’s letter to Violetta) when the Railroad Labor Board
announced that hourly wages would be cut by seven cents. It was the last straw in an ongoing feud over
a number of issues including working conditions and outsourcing of shopcrafts
to avoid the pay, pension and benefits that would have gone to railroad
employees. NOTE: this affected the shops
only, not operators’ unions that represented engineers, firemen, and
conductors. Just the shops. And Shenandoah, Virginia was a major town
along the Norfolk & Western line. There
were lots of shops.

Railroad Strikers in front of the old hotel 1922
Shenandoah, Virginia
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

The railroads employed strikebreakers to fill vacancies
caused by the strike. Hiring “scabs”
only increased the tension and hostilities between the railroad and striking
workers. In fact, the National Guard and
US Marshals were on duty in seven states.

President Warren G. Harding proposed a settlement but with very little benefit for the labor unions, so railroad companies rejected any
notion of compromise. Eventually the strikes
died down as local shopmen made deals on the local level.

Jacob "Jake" Hockman on the right
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

I still don’t know how the Hockmans figured in the story
of the scabs and the potential firing of Paul Hockman. His father Jacob “Jake” Hockman owned a
lumber and coal yard. No doubt he
supplied coal for the railroad as well as local businesses. Paul Hockman could possibly have worked for
the railroad, but I have not looked in sources beyond what is easily available on
Ancestry. In 1920 he was only 14 and not
working, but by 1930 he was managing his father’s lumber and coal yard.

Oh, wow, Wendy, there's a world of history embedded in that simple comment in one letter! Who would have thought.

From the context, I had wondered, if that shop were actually owned/run by the Hockmans, if Paul had stepped in during the strike. I know nowadays, when a union strikes, that leaves management scurrying to keep the work going forward. I imagine family might have stepped up to fill in where the management, themselves, couldn't cover all the bases. Of course, back then, such events could turn out to be more volatile than nowadays. Just my guess...

I totally agree with Jana and Debi, though: what a kick to get your take on it all! You definitely have a personality-plus writing style, and that's great!

Not knowing whether Claude S was one of the scabs and whether Paul was one too, I am not sure what to make of it. But it sounds as though maybe the strike was coming to an end, that some of the scabs were being let go and railroad shopmen would be returning to work.

Good work, Wendy! What a nuisance we readers can be. Strikes were a much more adversarial experience in earlier decades. Unions and companies used to risk everything in labor conflicts that frequently got violent and always left ill will. I've marched on picket lines, but never had to endure the outrage of scab workers crossing the line to work for less. Seeing that might easily lead to a split between friends or family and arguments about the unfairness of a strike.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net